Agreement Reached for Child Welfare Social Workers

An agreement has been reached between the NSGEU and Department of Community Services that will see Child Welfare Social Workers go up one pay grade and receive retroactive pay from April 12, 2017.

The Employer had indicated you will receive your retroactive pay within the next six weeks.

As you are aware back on April 12th, 2017, the NSGEU filed two policy grievances, pursuant to Article 43.01 of the Collective Agreement between the Parties on behalf of the Social Workers Involved in Child Welfare employed with the Department of Community Services, in the classifications of Social Worker 1A, 1B, 2 and 3. The NSGEU argued that the classification had been substantially altered since the job description was agreed upon in 1996.

Our policy grievances compared the original job duties in 1996 with the current role of Child Welfare Social Workers. During this time the employer has implemented a series of continuous legislated changes involving new and revised policies, while at the same time, expanding responsibilities and accountability with increasingly complex cases requiring more expertise along with increasing supervision.

Additionally, the amendments to Bill No.112 (Children and Family Services Act), and the associated regulations and policy changes, have meant significant additional changes to your work and workload.

Initially, a settlement was achieved with your employer in October 2018, but after receiving an overwhelming response from many members and conducting a telephone town hall, we approached the employer to restructure the settlement. Talks resumed and resulted in achieving retroactive pay for members, stretching back to April 12, 2017, the date that the grievance was filed.

You can find a copy of the settlement here. In addition, the Parties have agreed to the establishment of four Regional Committees as a venue to address ongoing workplace concerns. As more details of these committees become available we will share with you.

We recognize this has been a lengthy process and not all concerns raised have been addressed. However, the Employer has committed to continue working together with the Union to consider further changes.

Thank you all for your ongoing support and assistance in the lengthy process.

If you have any further questions on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact your respective NSGEU Employee Relations Officer, by calling 902-424-4063 (toll-free 1-877-556-7438) or by emailing inquiry@nsgeu.ca